Post by Lundbeckfonden / Lundbeck Foundation

The Brain Prize 2026 was awarded to David Ginty (Harvard Medical School, USA) and Patrik Ernfors (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) for their pioneering work on touch and pain. As part of the award ceremony, The Brain Prize made a short portrait film about the two winners that documents their lives and their careers in science. Although touch and pain have been studied for more than 150 years, Patrik Ernfors (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) and David Ginty (Harvard Medical School, USA) have revolutionised the field by identifying the cellular machinery that transforms painful, thermal and mechanical stimulation of the skin, such as stroking, vibration, or indentation, into neural signals. They have also shown how these signals are transmitted to and processed within the spinal cord and brain to generate the perception of how our bodies interact with the world. Key to their scientific discoveries have been the development of new technologies that have allowed the 2026 Brain Prize winners to categorise, visualise, study and manipulate the cells that give rise to the senses of touch and pain. Together, their discoveries have rewritten textbook principles of touch and pain and provided the foundation for a new generation of targeted interventions for pain and hypersensitivity to touch. You can watch the film and read more about this year's winners and their science at: https://brainprize.org/ #BrainPrize2026 #Neuroscience

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